Q.5.1 What is liquidity?Liquity is an interesting concept, and requires some understanding of the technology behind Nebula in orderto appreciate what it controls. Simplistically speaking, liquidity, for which is a parameter which controls the way in which kernels are mixed together in the time domain and is implemented through Acustica Audio SMOOTH technology

The liquidty parameter controls the fades between kernels. High liquidity levels can bring out phase issues and too low liquidity levels can create little clicks or noise on some emulation presets. This is why there is a slider for it, so the user can adjust the values to fit their needs. Typically, keep the liquidity level low will result in a more realistic emulation of sampled equipment.

my take on liquidity, is that it's something that shouldn't be included as a control in most programs. i only just recently realized/decided this myself, and from now on i'm going to try to remember to remove it from my future releases. it's in the programs by default. there are SOME programs where i think it could be useful, but very few.

dynamic programs like preamps/consoles/tapes/comps/etc, which seem to comprise the largest chunk of what's out there, shouldn't need the liquidity control. they are probably set up to be using cubic (or some other type) smoothing which someone can correct me if i'm wrong, but it's referred to as a 'smooth2' method of smoothing and is superior to liquidity. so to me, the liquidity control seems redundant because using it would be adding another smoothing to the one that's already being used.

for eq programs, again i believe they are using a smooth2 type smoothing. stuff like filters that can be swept, in my opinion might benefit from liquidity control. it could be used to change the sound of the sweeps. many similar types of things like that could also benefit. the stuff that comes with the official Acustica Audio library might be another exception because some of that stuff might have been sampled before smooth2 existed? i don't know about this, i'm just guessing. but i think that lots of that stuff not using a smooth2 algorithm would benefit from using one, and then wouldn't need liquidity.

but i've reached a point where i think the liquidity control is just one more thing, which contributes to the crowd of people who gripe about the GUI being too confusing. because it's a control that, for the most part, has absolutely no reason to be there anymore. it's been made obsolete by smooth2 for the most part. this is just my opinion, and something i've been thinking about lately which is why i took this opportunity to rant on it.

It's tempting to turn it down and then back up just far enough to remove any clicks and pops, but in practice low settings can also raise a whole range of low-level background 'nasties' considerably, that get smoothed out naturally at higher settings.

Over the years I've tweaked Liquidity on hundreds of occasions and taken measurements of audio quality, only to conclude that if the designer of the preset does his/her job properly you shouldn't have to change this setting, and I now largely ignore it.

I'm with Cupwise on this one - the Liquidity control is best left alone or even removed on the majority of presets. At best it's confusing

It's tempting to turn it down and then back up just far enough to remove any clicks and pops, but in practice low settings can also raise a whole range of low-level background 'nasties' considerably, that get smoothed out naturally at higher settings.

Over the years I've tweaked Liquidity on hundreds of occasions and taken measurements of audio quality, only to conclude that if the designer of the preset does his/her job properly you shouldn't have to change this setting, and I now largely ignore it.

I'm with Cupwise on this one - the Liquidity control is best left alone or even removed on the majority of presets. At best it's confusing